![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kmusserToday is our field trip to Amsterdam - the whole crew is going, 8 of us all together, piled into the van.
It's about a two hour drive, the trip there is uneventful - and the countryside rather foggy so we don't get to see much - we do note the abandoned customs houses at the border. We park downtown near the train station - neat views on the way in include several bridges with unusual architecture and the 3 level bicycle parking garage. From there we travel via canal - it's fascinating seeing a city designed around using bicycles and canals as primary modes of transport. The view from the canal is neat, unlike the German cities here the renaissance era architecture is mostly intact - most of the apartment buildings lining the canals were once merchant's warehouses. I also like all the houseboats in the canal - some of them are pretty elaborate.
Our first target is one of the larger street markets, near the Rijksmuseum (which we sadly don't have time to go in). The market is one of those "you might be able to find anything" type markets, even squid. I liked the flower and cheese merchants. No game stores though *grin* After that it's another canal trip over to the Anne Frank house.
The Anne Frank house was definitely the most memorable stop. The apartment building itself is fairly ordinary, the is a bunch of information to give some background, including interviews with the people that help hide the Franks. The rooms themselves have been kept bare except for small notes about how the room was used and quotes from the diary. I very rarely pick up on psychic energies, but stepping into the secret annex was like walking through a wall and going through the hidden rooms was like going through a fog - I don't think it was ghosts, but just the concentration of emotional energy that has been imbued into this place. It is a reminder, not only of the holocaust, but the heroic responses ordinary people had when faced with the unthinkable.
Where can we go after that except to head for Amsterdam's infamous red-light district. We only have time left for a brief walk through. It's sort of neat to see the sex trade out in the open, but I don't know - I think I've become jaded - you all are so damn sexy that the "professionals" don't do a whole lot for me. We also have our one big dinner of the trip here - stopping at a fondue place and gorging on cheese, mmmmm, cheese. Then a sleepy trip back to Essen.
"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death." - Anne Frank
It's about a two hour drive, the trip there is uneventful - and the countryside rather foggy so we don't get to see much - we do note the abandoned customs houses at the border. We park downtown near the train station - neat views on the way in include several bridges with unusual architecture and the 3 level bicycle parking garage. From there we travel via canal - it's fascinating seeing a city designed around using bicycles and canals as primary modes of transport. The view from the canal is neat, unlike the German cities here the renaissance era architecture is mostly intact - most of the apartment buildings lining the canals were once merchant's warehouses. I also like all the houseboats in the canal - some of them are pretty elaborate.
Our first target is one of the larger street markets, near the Rijksmuseum (which we sadly don't have time to go in). The market is one of those "you might be able to find anything" type markets, even squid. I liked the flower and cheese merchants. No game stores though *grin* After that it's another canal trip over to the Anne Frank house.
The Anne Frank house was definitely the most memorable stop. The apartment building itself is fairly ordinary, the is a bunch of information to give some background, including interviews with the people that help hide the Franks. The rooms themselves have been kept bare except for small notes about how the room was used and quotes from the diary. I very rarely pick up on psychic energies, but stepping into the secret annex was like walking through a wall and going through the hidden rooms was like going through a fog - I don't think it was ghosts, but just the concentration of emotional energy that has been imbued into this place. It is a reminder, not only of the holocaust, but the heroic responses ordinary people had when faced with the unthinkable.
Where can we go after that except to head for Amsterdam's infamous red-light district. We only have time left for a brief walk through. It's sort of neat to see the sex trade out in the open, but I don't know - I think I've become jaded - you all are so damn sexy that the "professionals" don't do a whole lot for me. We also have our one big dinner of the trip here - stopping at a fondue place and gorging on cheese, mmmmm, cheese. Then a sleepy trip back to Essen.
"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death." - Anne Frank
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Thanks - I appreciate confirmation
Date: 2 Nov 2008 01:52 (UTC)